Thinking well is not easy. And it is coming at a premium these days. I hope you'll join the inimitable Laura Hashimov and I for this season-ending pod as we chat about Alan Jacobs' book "How to Think" and the joy of Summer reading!  Once more into the breach, my friends!

From Babylon, With Love

“If You Want to Think Well, Work on Your Character”: A Season-Ending Conversation on Thinking and Reading Well w/ Laura Hashimov

Millions of Christians in America are living in alternate realities.  The church has been contaminated by tribalism and individualism.  How do we move forward in a moment like this without losing touch with what's real?  On this second to last podcast of our second season, Pastor John Hallowell offers us a four-fold approach to finding God and living a real life in a world of alternate realities. Let's pod! Painting: Christ in the Wilderness by Edward Knippers

The Four-Fold Path: Real Christian Life in a Valley of Alternate Realities (w/ Pastor John Hallowell)

Growing Old: A Conversation on Ageism, Youth Obsession, and the Beauty of a Slow, Multi-Generational Church w/ Pastor Aaron Gomez

Sometimes it's just good to take a moment to be thankful.

It Was A Perfect Day For A Walk In San Juan Capistrano

My friends, this is such an honest and important conversation I think many Christians will be able to resonate with and draw encouragement from. Ms. Laura Batstone (now Mrs. Hashimov!) gives us a candid tour-de-force about life being a single Christian woman into her 30s who is about to tie the knot! Listen in, my friends, there are pearls of wisdom here that every Christian needs to hear. Let’s pod!

Love, Dating, and Getting Married in a Pandemic: A Candid Conversation with the Affianced Laura Batstone!

Trained as voyeurs, consumers, and addicts of images from ever-younger ages, how do we (re-)learn how to see one another and the Lord Himself in a way that deepens our loves and attachments rather than obliterating them?  Rev. Hayden Butler joins us once again on the pod to think through this very challenging set of issues.  Let's pod!

The Image of God in a Pornographic Age: A Conversation w/ Rev. Butler on (Re-)Learning How to See God and One Another

Easter is the hinge of all reality.  But how do we enter into a deep observance and transformative remembrance of Easter (and Holy Week itself) when we have, we often feel, "heard it all before."  On this episode, resident Anglican priest of the pod, Hayden Butler, is going to help us think through what it means to truly enter into holy week this year--a year that has been like no other in our lifetime. Artist: Bonnie Bruno

How to Enter Holy Week: A Conversation w/ Rev. Butler on the Integration of Ritual and Reality

Self-awareness. Self-improvement. Personal growth. Personal development. Personal progress. Personal productivity. What happens when the paradigms and strategies of self-improvement that have saturated our culture find their way into the church? On this episode, Rev. Butler and I discuss the goal and shape of spiritual growth in an age of self-reflection.

Now We See In An Enneagram Dimly: A Conversation on Self-Reflection and Spiritual Growth w/ Rev. Hayden Butler

“In spite of the pain and its failures, I love the church.” On this episode of the pod, I am joined by my friend, Pastor Cole Beshore, a third-generation pastor who grew up in one of the largest megachurches in the country and now pastors Ranch Church in South Orange County. Here Cole talks honestly about growing up as a pastor’s kid and how he’s navigated the call of Jesus to love and serve His church without growing cynical. I hope you enjoy it!

To Love the Church: A Conversation w/ Pastor Cole Beshore on Loving and Serving the Church without Growing Cynical

In lieu of some technical difficulties with our previously scheduled episode this week (don't worry, it's still on the way!), I am rolling out an episode that was released previously on our patrons-only channel, Love in the Ruins.  It is just me chatting about the poetry of John Donne.  Hope you enjoy it!  And if you would like to support the podcast with a few bucks and become a patron, just sign up for the newsletter, Love in the Ruins, over at our website, www.frombabylonwithlove.com.

Love in the Ruins: John Donne and the Skeptical Crisis

Every year, Rev. Hayden Butler teaches Dante's Divine Comedy to teenagers. Why? What does a 14th-century poem that very few adults have ever read in full have to teach teenagers--or anyone else for that matter--about life? I'm thrilled to have Rev. Butler back on the podcast to guide us as we journey from earth to hell to heaven and back again.  Say it one more time for the people in the back--Dante! Is! For! Every! One!  Let's pod. To entice you even more to pick up the Divine Comedy and read, Rev. Butler has created a Lenten Reading Schedule beginning this Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17th, where we will read the entire Divine Comedy by Easter!  I am very excited about this.  You can get a copy of the reading schedule by sending us a request through our Contact page on the website or by emailing us directly at frombabylonwithlove@gmail.com.  I hope you will!      

Finding the True Path When You’ve Lost Your Way: A Conversation w/ Rev. Hayden Butler on How Dante’s Divine Comedy Can Change Your Life

"Here am I, Lord, send me." Many have read these words in Isaiah, others have imagined their implications, or even said them aloud, a precious few have actually followed through and surrendered everything to the Lord's call on their lives. It was my great privilege to sit down with Pastor Ray Clancy, one of my true "anamchara" (the old Gaelic word for "soul friend"), to chat about what it was like to hear the Lord's call to take his young family, leave everything behind, and plant a church in Ireland.

From Ireland, With Love: A Conversation w/ Pastor Ray Clancy on the Call to Ireland, the Cost of Ministry, and the Grace of God

A new year has dawned . . . and it's already off to a rocky start.  How should Christians approach and understand time and its passing?  How do we resist falling into a consumer/productivity experience of time?  What would it mean to experience time as a gift and creation of God?  In this episode, I sit down with Rev. Hayden Butler to think more deeply about a Christian sense of time and how to live within it.

A Christian Sense of Time: A Conversation w/ Rev. Hayden Butler on Anxiety, Hope, and How to Live Well in the Time that Remains

At this point, it's beginning to give me chills.  As with last week's episode, this episode was recorded ONE DAY BEFORE the insurrection of Jan. 6th.  And as we are poised on the tense precipice of Jan. 20th, I hope that prescience alone recommends what my guest, the very thoughtful and winsome Dr. Joel Looper, is talking about here concerning the dangers of "Christian" Nationalism and the witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Buckle up and let's pod!

Bonhoeffer’s America: A Conversation on Christian Nationalism and the Life and Thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer w/ Dr. Joel Looper

Perhaps unbelievably, this was recorded the day before the deadly chaos of January 6th.  Let that sink in as you listen to it.  Something is well and truly over, folks.  The fruit of the last few decades of contemporary Christianity's slide into an entrenched culture war, post-truth partisan politics, and the pursuit of power by any means necessary has been harvested before our eyes.  And it is disgraceful, corrupt, and a betrayal of the reality of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  Join John and I as we sift through the rubble and try to make sense of what we've seen, what we should have seen, and what we need to think through moving forward.

The Collapse of Contemporary Christianity: A Conversation w/ Pastor John Hallowell on the Decline and Fall of a Movement

Our desire is to help Christians of any background craft a deeper Christian life for a post-Christian world.

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From Babylon, With Love

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